Rough-Cut Trailer Feedback

When we showed the class the class the rough-cut of our trailer, we received a plethora of feedback to assist us improving our trailer and creating a successful final cut. In terms of scoring, we received one 5, six 6's, four 7's and two 8's, creating an average of 6.5 out of 10. Specific feedback focused on praising the special effects/make-up of the zombies, the music and the look of the text/titles. Criticisms highlights that the trailer needed to be longer, since it is approximately 40 seconds long right now,  and that there should be more gore present, as it is a zombie film. We will take this feedback into careful consideration and construct a final product that will please our target audience to the maximum extent.

Film Review - 28 Days Later

 

Film Title: 28 Days Later

Year of Production: 2002

Director: Danny Boyle

Genre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Brief Plot Outline: 28 days after a disastrous freedom act at an animal testing facility, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakes in an abandoned hospital. After exploring an eerily empty London, Jim learns that a virus has swept across Great Britain, and possibly the world, which sends the infected into an uncontrollable rage. Teaming up with Selena (Naomi Harris), Frank (Brendon Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns), they must work together to survive. Hope lies in the promise of salvation from Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston) and his soldiers, but not all is as it seems and salvation may be just as damning as the hell outside.

Which two Scenes impressed you the most? Why?:  The horde of rats fleeing from both the city and the infected. This scene adds psychological horror to this film, as the audience see’s rats, which are commonly seen as vermin who thrive in deplorable conditions, running away from the infected. This shows that the infected are worse vermin than the rats, because the rats themselves are scared and don’t want to be near the infected. It also shows us that nothing can escape this terrible virus, be they human or animal.

When Jim fights the soldiers. The use of motivated lighting and chiaroscuro in this scene highlights the desperation of the soldiers and their panic, with the darkness representing both their evil-ness and their perpetual deaths. The calm music, which is both creepy and soothing, acts as a form of pathetic fallacy; it seems to reflect Jim’s state of mind in that fact that he knows he has to kill the soldiers and rescue Selena and Hannah and he is prepared to do so.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of film making? Which features on this genre check list did you spot in the film? When? How?:

Blood and Gore – All of the infected have costumes and make-up which enforce their ‘zombie’-look. This gore is used to frighten the audience and to show that the infected are not fully human.

Restricted Narration – In the opening sequence, we see the female activist opening a cage to release an ape. This ape charges and attacks the woman, but the camera cuts away just before the attack.

Female Survivor – Selena can be seen as a female as she is quite masculine with her hairstyle, cut short, and her clothing, rugged coats, shirts, trousers etc. Also, she is placed in many dangerous situations through-out the film, in which she shows she is powerful by defending herself from both the infected and the soldiers. While Selena could also be seen as a final girl, Hannah is more of a final girl in this film, as she is ‘purer’ in the sense that she does not out-right physically kill anyone or have sex.

Sexism Towards Women – When the soldiers reveal their darker natures, they treat Selena and Hannah as objects for their own pleasure and not like people.

What aspects of the film would you like to INCLUDE in your own trailer?:

Strong characters regardless of gender, race or age – In many horror films, we see male characters as the strongest, most important characters and female characters as weaker and less important. However, in this film, we have strong male characters and strong female characters, in the forms of Jim and Selena. Another horror movie ‘trope’, as it were, is that non-white characters often die or are portrayed as weaker than their white counterparts. However, this film again defies conventions with Selena, a non-white character who is most definitely powerful and survives until the end. We also see a strong child/young character in Hannah when she reverses the taxi so Major Henry West is attacked and dragged off by the infected. She then rescues Jim and Selena by crashing through the gates and driving off to freedom.

What aspects of the film would you like to AVOID in your own trailer?:

‘Zombies’ – whilst the monster in this film are not strictly zombies, they hold many common conventions with the common zombie, including infection and biting humans. I would wish to avoid using zombies of any form in my trailer as zombies are grossly overdone in the horror genre. Also, many zombie movies are nothing more than cheap gore-filled films with no focus on plot or character. However, if zombies could be used in an interesting and non-generic manner, I would consider using them.

What was the best aspect/more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How?:

The most enjoyable aspect of this film was how the ‘male hero’ was not strong and ‘all-powerful’ straight from the start of the film. Often in horror films, the male hero character is shown as the pinnacle of strength and athleticism, holding the group together and rescuing the female characters whenever the inevitably end up in danger. However, in this film, Jim, the male hero, did not start off as all powerful or as the strongest. Instead, he started off weak and gradually developed into a strong character. Similarly, he did not become the single most powerful character just because he is male, instead all of the characters are equally powerful by the end of the film. I will attempt to recreate this in my trailer by having a male hero character who shows weakness and by having female and other non-male hero characters be shown as equally strong and weak.

How does this film show the influence of its ‘auteur’ director? How does it show the director’s filmmaking style and soul? Give examples of three scenes from the movie that show their auteur style:

Male Protagonist – Danny Boyle, the director of this film, almost always uses male protagonists. 28 Days Later is no exception with Jim as it male protagonist. Also a recurring figure is the strong, female character who works alongside the male protagonist; in this case it is Selena.

Choice – Another prominent feature in Danny Boyle’s films is the presence of choice. Characters are faced with making a choice(s) which generates hard-hitting consequences. One example of this is in 127 Hours (2010) in which the lead character has to choose whether to amputate his own arm or to die. In 28 Days Later, there are several small choices for characters to make, such as when Selena chooses to be cold-hearted and logical instead of kind and sentimental when Mark becomes infected. The main choice, however, is when Selena and Jim must choose whether to continue on by themselves or whether to partner up with Frank and Hannah and head to the ‘army’ blockade. This choice again relies on Selena who must choose whether to stay cold and harsh and not partner up, meaning she does not have to care for Frank and Hannah and therefore worry about their wellbeing, or whether to partner up and become nicer and kind-hearted, receiving friendship and strength from the two newcomers.

Left Wing Politics – Danny Boyle hold very left-wing political views and these are often shown in his films. In this film, we have the army soldiers, the remnants of authority, representing the right wing. Jim, Selena and Hannah represent the left wing, downtrodden and working-class, struggling to survive in a world set out to kill them and against an authority trying to abuse them. As is often prevalent in Danny Boyle films, the left wing characters triumph over the right wing authority.

Original Photo's - Magazine

Original Photo - Poster

Butchered: Trailer Rough Cut

Prop List

Final Magazine Cover

Final Trailer Poster

Poster Analysis: The Strangers

The Strangers is a 2008 American horror mystery-thriller film. The main image is of three masked people, one wielding a knife. This violent image automatically makes us assume these three people are the antagonists of the film, the killers. The use of masks adds to the disturbing feel of the poster, as if these people have cause to hide their identity, they must be intent on causing harm or death, as evidenced by the presence of the knife. The angle used is a straight-on close up of the killers faces, or rather masks, with their black, empty eyes staring straight forwards. Using this style of shot, wherever the viewer looks at the shot, it looks like the killers are staring straight back at them. The image of the killers dominates the poster, implying that in the film, the killers have a large influence in the event and the outcome. Overall, this poster does not give us a large amount of information regarding the film, its location or the events within. It does not even tell us who the protagonists are. However, the fact that the killers, the antagonists, are the main feature on the poster implies that they may be more important than them, implying already that the protagonists may die and the antagonists could continue on their killing spree.

The colours that dominate this poster are grey, black and white. The use of these colours are to make this poster look like an old-fashioned movie poster. This may be to show that this movie will scare people like old horror movies scared people in older times, or it may be used to fool people it is less scary than modern horror movies in an attempt to catch people off guard and scare them more. It may also allude to the idea that the film could be in black-and-white or that the plot could be ‘black-and-white’ in the sense that it is easy to follow.

There are only two fonts in used in this poster. The first is used with the tagline, the title and the line claiming the movie is based on true events. The second font is used for the smaller writing at the bottom which details actors, directors, producers etc.

The tagline of this poster is ‘Lock the door. Pretend you’re safe.’ This tells is that this movie obviously has intentions to scare its viewers, to make them feel vulnerable and in danger even though they’re only watching a movie. This is a form of psychological horror used to make the audience connect with the movie more and make it feel more realistic. It also alludes as to what happens in the movie, that there may be a home invasion, ‘lock the door’, or that people may not realise that there are killers until later on in the movie, ‘pretend you’re safe.’

The target audience for the movie would be a male and female audience aged 18 to late-twenties-early thirties, mainly English and American. 

Film Review - Resident Evil

 

Film Title: Resident Evil

Year of Production: 2002

Director: Paul W.S Anderson

Genre(s): Horror, Action, Sci-Fi

Brief Plot Outline: Zombie horror. After a viral breakout at a secure facility, a specialist team, along with an amnesiac woman, Alice, a police officer and a mysterious man, delve into the facility to find out what occurred, as well as shutting down the potentially homicidal A.I, the Red Queen. As their numbers are decimated and they face the zombie horde held within the facility, their only hope lies in the hands of Alice and her sinister, forgotten past.

Which two Scenes impressed you the most? Why?:  The shutdown of the Red Queen – The dialogue by the Red Queen “You’re all going to die down here” is offputting and creepy, seeing as it is seemingly coming from a little girl. Coupled with this line, after the power goes off and the doors all open, we hear a faint, but growing louder, sound fx of the zombies groaning. This connection gives the audience a source of dramatic irony, as the protagonists believe they are now safe, when in reality they have potentially just doomed themselves.

The end sequence – After Alice and the police officer are captured by Umbrella, Alice wakes in a hospital environment. She escapes and exits into a cityscape. The performance, by actress Milla Jovovich who plays Alice, shows the audience that something is already wrong, outside of her being potentially experimented, which also acts as both an establishing shot and a destablishing shot. It establishes the open ending to the film, as well as the premise for its sequel(s), as well as ending our film.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of film making? Which features on this genre check list did you spot in the film? When? How?:

Creepy Locations – We have several different locations in this film; we have the mansion, the underground facility, the hospital, the city. The underground facility itself has lots of different locations inside itself including sewers, laboratories, elevators, offices, train stations, the A.I core etc. The use of so many different and varying locations in this film has helped me understand that, with the correct lighting, props, sound, editing etc., potentially any location can be made creepy, including those which in normal life would be seen as boring, such as elevators and offices.

Collision Cutting – We have several instances of collision cutting in this film, mostly used to intensify feelings of fear and shock in the audience. The elevator scene in the opening scene, where the woman sticks her head out of the doors, only for the elevator to rise up and, as implicated by the sound fx, resulting in her head being cut off – it is slow and quiet while she is near the floor, then everything speeds up and gets louder with the cutting and blood spurt sound fx being the loudest and last sounds in the scene.

Blood and Gore – Throughout most of the movie, we see a lot of blood and gore in the form of the zombies, who primarily show the gore through the use of make-up and special effects. We also see blood and gore whenever a character is attacked or dies, such as when Rain Ocampo, played by Michelle Rodriguez, is bitten on her hand and when Spence, played by James Purfoy, is maimed by the ‘Licker’ zombie and is discovered by Alice, half-alive and severely bloodied. We also have the laser tunnel scene where four members of the specialist team are sliced apart, with one losing his fingers, one being decapitated, one being cut in half and the final member being sliced into several small diamonds.

Restricted Narration – While strange for a movie which displays a high level of blood and gore, this film also uses restricted narration to a high degree. In the train station when Alice and the other survivors are escaping, Alice kills the undead corpse of Spence, but we do not see her do so; instead we see her face, hear a sound fx and then the scene moves on. Similarly, in an earlier scene, we see one of the members of the specialist team open a door, only to be swarmed by zombies on the other side who drag him into the crowd. While we see initial parts of blood and gore through scratches and bites, he disappears from sight before the scene becomes excessively gory.  

Character Roles – We have the female survivor/final girl in the character of Alice. The male hero is shown in the character of Matt, the police officer, played by Eric Mabius. The psycho killer is prevalent in the character of the Red Queen and the slow-moving monster is shown multiple times with the many zombies.

What aspects of the film would you like to INCLUDE in your own trailer?:

Lack of a ‘female victim’ – In most horrors, there will always be one character who fits the stereotype of the female victim, who is most always often blonde, unintelligent, skimpily-dressed and dies first, usually after having sex. With the advances in equal rights and the recognition of sexism in modern society, many audiences view the female victim as an insult to the female gender. This films lack of female victim means that the female characters are equal to the male characters and when/if they die, it is not due to unintelligence, but rather simple human error or heroism.

Psychological horror – The character of the Red Queen is a very off-putting character to the audience. It/She is a little girl, or rather the holographic image and voice of one, who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of workers in the underground facility. This creepy character hits a more psychological fear in the audience as seeing a young girl, which would usually be viewed as the picturesque image of innocence, as a psychotic killer is not common in modern society or in many films. The infamous quote of “You’re all going to die down here” further reinforces this disturbing bit of psychological horror as the audience would not expect to hear a young girl say this.

What aspects of the film would you like to AVOID in your own trailer?:

Body Horror – Body horror is a very overdone sub-genre in horror and doesn’t generate the same style of fear as psychological. Body horror focuses on nauseating the audience, which only lasts for a short time. Psychological horror can create fear which can last for an indeterminate length of time. Also, many body horror films focus solely on blood and gore while mostly ignoring the plot, whilst psychological horror’s put great detail into the plot, as it closely links with the horror element of the film.

What was the best aspect/more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How?: 

When the Red Queen in her little girl ‘form’ remarks “You’re all going to die down here.” This is almost a form of contrapuntal sound, as it is not something the audience would expect to hear from a little girl. It also reinforces the psychological horror side of the film; there is no gore, no blood, no death, just a little girl, a figure the audience would instinctively trust and/or care for, telling the protagonists that they are going to die. 

Six Panel Practice Storyboard